Roger Stone, former adviser to Donald Trump's presidential campaign, listens during the Politicon convention inside the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, California, U.S., on Saturday, July 29, 2017. During the third annual Politicon pundits, politicians, comedians and entertainers gather to discuss issues that touch all sides of the political spectrum.Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Roger Stone had role in taking NXIVM down; was never in cult

Roger Stone, the longtime political consultant, had a role in taking the sex slaver cult of NXIVM down. I know because I had a hand in it also.

It was Stone and lawyer Steve Pigeon who were responsible for getting me the consulting job for NXIVM and its two enablers, Seagram’s heiresses,Clare Bronfman and Sara Bronfman-Igtet.

I went to work for the Bronfmans and NXIVM in Albany NY in 2007. By the time I began, Stone had just quit working for them. At the time, the sinister aspects of the cult were well hidden. It was not until almost 10 years later [in June 2017] that I first broke the news that the cult branded and blackmailed women. That concept had not started when Stone or I did work for NXIVM in 2007.

From the onset of my six months’ employment with NXIVM, Stone would call me up and tell me the reason he quit, and the reason he did not want to work for NXIVM’s cult leader Keith Raniere: He thought Raniere was a bullshitter.

He would call me up and ask sarcastically, “How’s the world’s smartest man?”

[Raniere claimed to have the highest IQ in the world, a claim I was to later debunk when I revealed that the IQ test he bragged of scoring so highly was a take home IQ test and he cheated].

Stone would call me and deride one or another of Raniere’s claims. He suggested I quit, but not too strongly, for he realized I was being paid. Neither one of us had any idea how dark this cult was beneath the surface. For my part, I thought the group was essentially comprised of good people who were a little eccentric.

Let the record fairly show that Roger Stone was the first person to give me fair warning that NXIVM and Raniere were not what they appeared to be.

I remember it clearly because, at the time I was working with NXIVM and Stone had recently quit – he was gunning for Elliot Spitzer. Stone told me he would see to it that Spitzer – then governor of New York – would go down in disgrace.

Stone suggested I help him go after Spitzer. I had to pass, for my work for Raniere/Bronfman was consuming all my time.

At the time, I believed the Bronfmans wanted to see good done in the world and thought Raniere, plus their backing him with their money, could possibly do some good. [Only years later did I {and Stone} learn of the horrors Raniere and the Bronfmans did to others.]

Stone told me that, after he had been working for NXIVM for about two months, they wanted him to use his political contacts to get Keith Raniere’s old girlfriend, Toni Natalie, indicted. They were willing to pay a million dollars. Raniere felt that he should be able to buy politicians or US attorneys to get his enemies indicted. Stone said they needed a lawyer not a political consultant and quit.

Stone went on to other work in other political circles including – it appears – to play a role in the disgracing [and subsequent resignation] of Elliot Spitzer a few months later.

As for me, I went on to uncover fraud being perpetrated against the Bronfmans. I recovered $26 million dollars for them in assets. Then I discovered that another $65.6 million was missing.

When I told the Bronfmans that someone swindled them out of what appeared to be more than $90 million, their attitude was one of complete unconcern. They believed Keith Raniere could make it back for them any time he wanted. After all, he was the smartest man in the world.

I found out also that Raniere had told the two sisters that their own father, Edgar Bronfman Sr., was responsible for the losses. Raniere said their father and The Illuminati wanted to destroy him. That was why The Illuminati and Bronfman Sr. [Raniere said] pulled strings behind their backs and why they lost $65 million in commodities investments. The father, Raniere told them, had manipulated world markets to foil Raniere’s advised trades.

I told the Bronfmans I was going to look into whether I could get back some of the $65 million they lost in commodities. Stone gave me information on their purported investments in corn futures that showed there was no way the father was behind it.

I was now fully convinced the Bronfmans were being swindled, but I did not suspect Raniere. I did not want to believe it. I had grown to like Raniere. He could be charming – and let’s face it – were he not charming, he would not have been able to get so many people into his cult.

Stone scoffed at the idea of The Illuminati and derided the idea that Bronfman Sr. secretly swindled his daughters to discredit Keith. I told the Bronfman sisters I was going to make a thorough investigation of the commodities trades made under Raniere’s guidance. The next day, I was fired by Keith Raniere.

As for Stone, for those who think he was in the cult, or the conduit of something sinister with NXIVM, here is what I know:

Stone was associated with Raniere and NXIVM for about two months.

He audited one NXIVM “executive success” workshops for one afternoon. Stone never officially enrolled and never completed the class.

I doubt Stone saw any of the secret sex cult practices of NXIVM. This was well hidden. As far as I know, Stone met Raniere only once during his tenure.

I lived with the cult in Albany for months, working day and night, and I did not see any signs of an evil sex cult. I came to learn Raniere was sleeping with some of the women but these women seemed happy and intelligent. No one was acting like they were being coerced.

Stone stopped working for NXIVM in 2007. The human female branding did not start until 2015.

Stone’s parting with Raniere was amicable. He convinced them they needed a lawyer, not a lobbyist in their quest to indict enemies.

After I turned whistle blower, Stone gave me further information that aided me in my work of exposing the cult.

To say he was a member of NXIVM, or had any meaningful role in aiding their nefarious deeds, is a patent untruth. He was an early warning voice for me and later aided me in getting the truth out, providing resources and information that ultimately led to the successful takedown of what turned out to be a very vicious cult.

40 Comments

[…] go undercover in a Deep State spiderhole? This article with more personal background would indicate Stone went in temporarily, kept his distance, and then got an auditor hired on to go through their f… Sounds suspiciously like Stone was doing a little spying on something which someone told him to […]

Nobody cares about this tool. His demise is already in motion without NXIVM involvement. What is more of a concern is how some members’ Wiki bio’s are still pretty squeaky clean. Also, The Knife Media is still up and running. The My Tourette’s Documentary is still a budding hit. Both NXIVM products and oddly left out of the spotlight they so deserve.

More articles. Until the site is shut down. Funny, I’m sure it was birthed with the idea they could use it to counteract their own bad publicity. But the bad publicity was far toooooo much. So they stayed away from it all together. Why? Because people are still profiting from its mere existence, And hope to continue doing so. Also, more articles about the hoax My Tourette’s until every mention of it includes comments on the lie that it is.

These two entities are particularly important. Because big players that need to be accounted for are still getting payments. It’s just disgusting. Rainbow Garden is shut down. These two need to also be shut down. Once they are, the only living NXIMS entities are JNess and SOP. Which are what they are. But the Doc and the Knife still hide what they are. Websites squeaky clean.

I checked the Alexa ranks on The Knife Media. In January of 2018 they were lower than the one millionth most popular site in the US, now they are up to 107,000. Most of their traffic comes from people reading about them on this site, FB, or reddit, and then going to check it out. I’ll explain my logic for that statement further down this post.

Nexium is making diddley squat on theknifemedia.com. I own a couple sites with higher rankings and more narrowly targeted traffic – targeted traffic is much more valuable, especially if your targeting the right people – and I’m not making much money off of them yet.

TheKnifeMedia also has a Patreon account with 111 patrons who are all probably cult members. I doubt they are receiving a whole lot of patron support.

The web site is nice looking and laid out well, but its just a simple wordpress template that someone probably purchased for less than a $100. Serious MONEY MAKING news sites that have reasonable amounts of traffic would never be built with a wordpress template.

I ran an SEO analysis on theknifemedia.com. Their page rank for their articles is shit, which is not surprising. They are trying to compete in one of the most competitive areas of the internet against thousands of companies with way more experience and resources than they have. Nobody is finding them for news. I’d be willing to bet that NOT ONE person has every visited theknifemedia.com based on a news related search. The only search terms they are ranking well for are: the knife media & knife media. Which leads me to my next point…

Most of their new visitors are finding them after reading about the cult in the news and doing a little research. Picture the people in the opposing traffic lanes slowing down to gawk at a disastrous accident on the interstate. Those are the people that are visiting theknifemedia. Their traffic is comprised of gawkers and based on their site ranking, there’s not very many of them.

Instead of focusing on getting them to take the site down, it would be better that they leave the site up and waste time and resources keeping it updated.

I’ll give them credit for building a nice, regularly updated, easy to navigate, site with clean design. But if they were to try to sell that site, it wouldn’t be worth the $10 a month hosting costs to any potential buyer.

I checked the Alexa ranks on The Knife Media. In January of 2018 they were lower than the one millionth most popular site in the US, now they are up to 107,000. Most of their traffic comes from people reading about them on this site, FB, or reddit, and then going to check it out.
Its nothing anybody should be concerned about. I’ll explain my logic for that statement further down this post.

Nexium is making diddley squat on theknifemedia.com. I own a couple sites with higher rankings and more narrowly targeted traffic – targeted traffic is much more valuable, especially if your targeting the right people – and I’m not making much money off of them yet.

TheKnifeMedia also has a Patreon account with 111 patrons who are all probably cult members. I doubt they are receiving a whole lot of patron support.

The web site is nice looking and laid out well, but its just a simple wordpress template that someone probably purchased for less than a $100. Serious MONEY MAKING news sites that have reasonable amounts of traffic would never be built with a wordpress template.

I ran an SEO analysis on theknifemedia.com. Their page rank for their articles is shit, which is not surprising. They are trying to compete in one of the most competitive areas of the internet against thousands of companies with way more experience and resources than they have. Nobody is finding them for news. I’d be willing to be that NOT ONE person has every visited theknifemedia.com based on a news related search. The only search terms they are ranking well for are: the knife media & knife media. Which leads me to my next point…

Most of their new visitors are finding them after reading about the cult in the news and doing a little research. Picture the people in the opposing traffic lanes slowing down to gawk at a disastrous accident on the interstate. Those are the people that are visiting theknifemedia. Their traffic is comprised of gawkers and based on their site ranking, there’s not very many of them.

Instead of focusing on getting them to take the site down it would be better that they leave the site up and waste time and resources keeping it updated.

I’ll give them credit for building a nice, regularly updated, easy to navigate, site with clean design. But if they were to try to sell that site it wouldn’t be worth the $10 a month hosting costs to any potential buyer.

BTW, thefrankreport is ranked around 25,000. That’s very impressive for a narrowly focused site that does not do any SEO.

I think it is a forgone conclusion that any case against Mr. Parlato (based on Clare Bronfman’s testimony) is crumbling right before our eyes.

Clare’s use of an attorney in Mexico to send cease-and-desist letters to FBI witnesses is clear obstruction of justice, plus the US Attorney’s Office has revealed that a private jet was used to transport foreign nationals to Albany. Thus, Clare has also been implicated in the human smuggling ring.

You start transporting foreign nationals to US soil, without being screened – that is now the realm of ICE and DHS. And Trump’s DHS is a lot less forgiving than Obama’s DHS.

Does the superseding indictment and protective order with regards to Frank’s case indicate that the government has uncovered more charges to add to his indictment or that the charges will be dropped? Even if Clare committed perjury as Frank says, if the government’s investigation uncovered criminal activity by Frank, would it matter? According to the Feds, Parlato, orchestrated a scheme to defraud the IRS that involved more than 15 shell companies, 50 bank accounts and multiple attorney trust accounts. In Joseph O’Hara’s 2012 lawsuit, he alleged that Frank was hired by NXIVM to create a negative publicity campaign to malign him (archive.org/stream/292927-ohara-v-raniere/292927-ohara-v-raniere_djvu.txt):

RE: Harassment and Intimidation of the Plaintiff
73. Based upon information and belief, NXIVM/ESP and/or other Defendants hired Frank Parlato, Jr. (“Parlato”) to develop a “negative publicity campaign” in order to malign the Plaintiff’s reputation in the Albany, NY area (This “negative publicity campaign” included billboard advertisements – and a “story” concerning the Plaintiff that was to be distributed to all of the homes in the Albany, NY area ).

And according to the NY Observer’s 2010 article, Parlato flew to LA to try and intimidate Raniere’s business partner out there: “Mr. Plyam alleged that when the sisters’ trust funds began to run dry, Mr. Raniere hired Frank Parlato Jr., an Albany property developer, to fly to L.A. with three “thugs,” clad in sunglasses and long leather coats, and impersonate an emissary of “Papa Bronfman” to intimidate Mr. Plyam into ceding his own assets to cover a portion of Mr. Raniere’s losses. (Among Mr. Parlato’s more sensational claims about “Papa Bronfman,” according to a cross-complaint Mr. Plyam filed against Mr. Raniere and Sara and Clare Bronfman, was that he had installed a camera in Sara’s bedroom in order to spy on his daughter having sex with Mr. Raniere.)”

Means there was a defect in the indictment or a problem in how the grand jury was conducted. Probably both in Parlato’s situation.
One of the actual lawyers can pipe up about whether any evidence whatsoever can be used when Clare’s perjurious complaint was the basis for obtaining any warrants, or does that technically disqualify as fruit of the poisonous tree?

It would not be fruit of the poisonous tree. That concept applies to illegally (more technically, improperly) obtained evidence. This would include: items collected without search warrant, items gathered where there were no exigent circumstances, unlawful search, etc.

The problem now with the case against Frank Parlato is that the ‘Star Witness’ and complaintant (we never say victim, the proper word is complaintant) is Clare Bronfman. Scarecrow has zero credibility. Any half-wit attorney could tear her apart on the witness stand as the FBI has accused her of:

Not to mention the latest NXSCUM lawsuit debacle, where Clare testified that Keith invented video teleconferencing. The Federal Judge disagreed and awarded AT&T and Microsoft $5 Million dollars as Vangrifter and Scarecrow filed a frivolous claim…

To answer your question with more precision…if the investigator had a reasonable belief that the testimony was credible, then the search warrant is valid irregardless of whether or not the witness was lying. The test balances on the good faith of the investigator, and the police making a good faith attempt to execute the warrant.

Now if the investigator knew beforehand, that Scarecrow was a total liar, then the warrant and evidence obtained under that warrant could be thrown out. But that is near impossible to prove…

The idea of Edgar Bronfman Senior being able to manipulate the commodities market is laughable.
The idea of any one man being able to manipulate commodities markets is ludicrous on its face.
The Hunt Brothers, oil billionaires from Dallas, tried to corner the world silver market and ended up bankrupting themselves.

The fact that Cruella Bronfman and her sister Sara would buy that story proves how mentally stunted they are.

While NXIVM already had the attributes of a cult in 2007, it was still discreet.
If the branding only started in 2015, as Pam Cafritz was suffering from cancer and Barbara Jeske had already passed away, then the branding, torture and overt acts of slavery only started with the rise to power of the Maniac Allison Mack.

“Another woman who spoke with two of Mack’s alleged DOS slaves at length says that during the very same period, Mack was deep into her role as a “master” of DOS and running the organization with brutal efficiency. “These slaves said Mack was incredibly intimidating, cruel and punitive,” says this woman, who declined to speak on the record because of the ongoing case. The slaves told her that Mack threatened to release the collateral she had gathered on them if they didn’t sleep with Raniere. “You made a lifetime vow!” she says Mack screamed at them. “She berated them and told them they were worth nothing, that they were weak and couldn’t uphold their word,” says the woman. She told them if they refused her orders, dated other men, left the group or refused sex with Raniere, they would be destroyed. Both women were in Mack’s “slave pod,” and both were eventually branded.”

Not true. Warren Buffet has had the market cornered on gold for just about forever.
And the Hunts weren’t successful because they were sabotaged.
I have know the guy who traded for them for many years.
The commodities markets are constantly rigged.
The problem is that if you don’t know what the triggers are to ride the market, you are doomed.

All that being said, Raniere has never been important enough for someone to rig the market just to take him down. He is just a moron, and I don’t believe that all of that 65M$ went in the market. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of that 8M$ came from the commodities scam.

There was no commodities scam. Raniere invested the Bronfmans money in the commodities market and insisted he had a mathematical formula that couldn’t lose. The Bronfman girls were idiots and willingly let him trade with their money. When the money was lost, Raniere needed a scapegoat and first blamed Edgar Bronfman. When that didn’t work, he blamed the commodities broker.

‘Plyam was also the commodities broker who handled the commodities transactions the sisters lost $66 million dollars on, although curiously there are no records of any transactions ever being made and the Bronfmans never saw anything documenting the trades, either.’https://artvoice.com/2016/1…

As Frank states, he got fired by Vanturd the very next day after he promised the Bronfman sisters to get to the bottom of what had happened.

You have no idea what you are talking about so perhaps you shouldn’t weigh in on this without any facts. The facts are there were plenty of account statements for the commodities trades. The statements were sent to Raniere. The trades were bona fide trades made by Raniere himself. The Bronfmans never saw anything because Raniere never showed them anything!! My comments, unlike yours are based upon personal knowledge.

You, sir, need to be very careful about what you say. In my opinion, you are not a good human being. You are just another money grubbing individual who was willing to do whatever Raniere and Bronfman wanted you to do as long as you got paid. You can’t erase your past simply because you may have helped expose NXIVM for what it is. Your exposure of NXIVM was simply a vendetta against Clare Bronfman because she was one of the reasons you were indicted on fraud and money laundering charges. You are all morally bankrupt!!

I have no problem giving credit where credit is due and I do recognize Mr. Parlato’s contributions in exposing NXIVM. What I cannot abide is his continued misstatement of facts. He attempts to hold himself out as some sort of do-gooder when he is really just an opportunist who may very well be convicted for his own misdeeds. If there is justice he may, in the not so distant future, reside in a cell right next to Raniere.

When has Frank presented himself as a do gooder? He’s about as hardcore straightforward as can be, per his opinion. As far as opportunists, it sure looks the more I read about everyone ever involved in Nxivm , everyone was a bit of an opportunist. Even now still in some ways. I’ve never seen so many damaged people able to be so proactive in new beneficial opportunities that are sprouting from the Nxivm national coverage now.

Have never seen any indication of Parlato trying to hold himself out to be “pure as the driven snow”.

There is a weird rampant level of ignorance careening through North America right now, whereby people are operating under the faulty premise than people are either all good or all bad. This is its own form of “Kool Aid”.

By most accounts, Mother Theresa was a demanding, controlling bitch, who did amazing things to help many, many people.

I will add that most people who accomplish much of anything (and Parlato seems reasonably accomplished) do not get there by being 100% squeaky clean. It just isn’t realistic.

How does one “look cool” on the internet? I don’t need to talk bad about Parlato. The indictment against him speaks volumes. Many people tried to take NXIVM down long before Parlato and were ignored. If anyone deserves the credit, it is the tireless efforts of the Times Union and Catherine Oxenberg who used her position to shine a spotlight on NXIVM which prompted the story in the New York Times.

And Frank Parlato is a folk hero in many ways to all of us. I haven’t seen anyone involved trying to pretend Frank didn’t have a major role in pushing this story out, which the Times Union was never able to do on their own.

Loads of major publications credit him as a whistleblower, and breaking the story.

Want to know the difference between Allison Mack and Keith Raniere’s indictments, and Frank Parlato’s indictments?

Theirs were obtained legitimately, while Parlato’s was purchased whether by cash or influence. That, in itself, destroys the credibility of the indictment against him.

Some random like you wanting to try to use it as some legitimate source doesn’t change any of that.

But he WAS part of the organization and played a role of harming third parties — those supposed enemies and supressives — during his time there. The same can be said for you, Frank.

The two of you need to be held responsible for that fact. Just like like Alison, Nicki, etc, etc, and on and on, need to be held accountable, no matter if and when they change their view of Keithy Boy, Nurse Nancy and the org.

WAY too many free passes are being handed out here. It seems like the only ambition here is to get Vanguard sentenced; and no one else. Victimology is running wild. Or should we call it Death Bed Confessions? Stop it

Such an opinion is devoid of the granularity of the differences of the involvement of people in this cult. It is black and white thinking that isn’t applicable here. People should be held accountable for both their intentions and their actions. Unless someone is a mind and heart reader, one does not have full access to a person’s intentions. So people can only be judged from what is known of their actions, and only then it might be possible to assess motivations. This is why it is muddle-headed thinking to group Kristin Kreuk, Grace Park, Allison Mack, Sarah Edmondson, Mark Vicente, Mark Hildreth, Nicki Clyne, and India Oxenberg into a group as if they share equal responsibility just because they are (minor) celebrities.

What exactly where Stone’s actions then, that he should be held just as responsible as Nikki, Allison, India, Nancy, et al? He should be “held accountable” for things that were done years after he left, things which he had no clue of at the time, as they were not in some cases even in existence yet?
Stone was a ‘lobbyist’ with the cult for all of two months, then walked away laughing at them, especially at them thinking that they could simply be introduced to Albany and DC lawmakers and officials, and then those introductions would lead to the persecution of their “supposed enemies and suppressives” Stone, in his interview with Frank, told how misguided they were–they didn’t pay attention in civics class, if they even made to a civics class as they thought they could just pick up the phone and demand prosecutions of people. When Stone left, Frank came on board, and while getting the millions back from the California real estate deal was right, when he offered to go further and recover the missing 65 milli from the commodities, Raniere knew he was busted and fired Frank. Is Frank responsible for the commodities deal? For the past persecution of Toni? For the formation of DOS, long before Allison became head pimp? He wouldn’t play along with their game nor join their belief system, so he had to go, and they moved on to the next person hired to help them with their lawfare. Kristen Gillibrand’s father, who is an attorney, was also hired, lasted a few short months, and booked. And they went after him for the money they paid, just like they did Frank. Either they were afraid of Stone, or he did so little for them that he did not receive much from them. You are saying that they are a “part of the organization,” as if they too joined the cult and belief system, you know that is not true. People were hired by the Clinton Foundation, yet no one claims that random attorneys or aid workers should be just as responsible for the squandering of the Haitian relief Funds as the Clintons themselves, not even the protesting Haitians who are outspoken about how badly they were ripped off.

So precisely what would you hold those two responsible for? Which specific actions, who did they harm?